Tuesday brought a lot of bad news for Democrats and the Democratic Party.  It was not, however, a disaster.  For the sixth time in the past seven elections, our candidate won the popular vote for President.  (However, for the second time in the past five elections, we lost the electoral college while winning the popular vote.)  We gained two Senate seats and come close in several others.  A slim Republican majority in the Senate will hinder the ability of the Republicans to go as far as some in the Republican party would like.  We gained approximately five seats in the House.  While the Senate map is favorable for Republicans in terms of the location of races, mid-term elections generally favor the party out of power.  (The supporters of the new administration tend to be disappointed by the failure to get more done while the opponents are outraged by what has been done.)  In other words, while the party does have to think about its agenda for 2018 and 2020, we are in a slightly better position than Republicans were after the 2008 elections.